BAD BOYZ FIGHTWEAR PROFILE
Posted on | July 9, 2007 | 1 Comment
By: Rich Bergeron The Metropolis Night Club, located inside the Cincinnati Mills Mall, will host another incredible amateur MMA event this Saturday, January 27th. The doors open for ICE 25 at 7:00, and the fights begin at 8:00. Typically featuring anywhere from 12-15 fights at each event, the tickets for the show range in price from $30-55. Fight News Unlimited caught up with two of the competitors on Saturday’s card recently. Bad Boyz Fight Team members Dan Spradlin and Tom Eppens took some time out to talk about their outlook on their upcoming fights and the MMA scene in general. Dan “Cincy Bad Boy” Spradlin will be rematching Jake Rausch Saturday. Their first fight on 12/2/06 was a war, and the battle went all three rounds. Dan lost by a close decision, but he’s been putting in some major work in training to address the weaknesses that cost him the first match. Tom “Iron Man” Eppens will be on Saturday’s card, too. Tom made his MMA debut on 9/30/06, winning in 0:29 of the 1st round by submission (rear naked choke). Tom fought again on 12/2/06 and lost in round 1 (2:15), by submission (side choke). This fight marks his last entry into the cage as an amateur, as he will be headed immediately into the pro ranks. He’s scheduled to make his pro debut about a week after the fight. Tom “Iron Man” Eppens
Tom Eppens obviously enjoys fighting. Despite being only a week out from one of the most important fights of his young career, he decided to fight this weekend and put in one last amateur fight before turning pro. “I’ll be making my pro debut next weekend. This Saturday is my last amateur event,” said Eppens. “When the opportunity opens up, you gotta take it.”
He calls himself a grappler with a little boxing experience, and he said he banks a lot on his experience as a high school wrestler. “I just started fighting about a year ago,” he said. “For background training, I’ve done a lot of different things to add up to this point. I used to do grappling and MMA, but it was nothing to do really with fighting. I did wrestling in High School, and I did some security at Metropolis Night Club, and that’s how I ended up finding out about it. One of the fellow security guys I worked with actually grapples himself.”
Asked what he enjoys most about competing in MMA, he responded, “It’s gotta be the adrenaline rush, man. That’s what everyone gets in there for, and to make something outta’ your name.”
His first priority is to become a professional, and eventually he’d like to make it into PRIDE or the UFC. His favorite fighter is Andrei Arlovski. “Just for his tactics and the hard work he puts into it,” said Eppens. “Also because of where he started and where he’s at now. He’s just a well-set, goal-oriented guy.”
As for what he does before a fight to get ready, his training includes basic tactics, keeping his cardiovascular conditioning up with 12-15 mile runs every day, and “countdowns.” Countdowns are a series of jumping jacks, pushups, and sit-ups. He starts with 19 of each and counts down to zero, treating zero as the number one. “I just make sure I’m ready to perform at Grade A level,” he said. “I always give it 110 percent.”
Grappling and submissions are his number one skill in the cage. That aspect of his game has been developing since he was a toddler. “I started back when I was 4-years-old in the little kids’ club, and I haven’t stopped since,” he said. “I’ve been grappling for 18 years, and I’ve gone to Hawaii and Rome for it, and plus I’ve been boxing about four years.” He’s also trained in the Miletich Fighting Systems for about three years now.
“Overall, it’s a pretty good show,” he said about the last event he’ll be involved in as an amateur. “Next weekend my show is out in Indiana, and I only heard about it at the last minute. I was invited by one of the other pro fighters in it, and I’ll be making my pro debut at 185 pounds. I used to fight at 205, but I cut down.”
Looking to the future of MMA, he’s excited about the sport’s potential. “The way I see it, it’s already putting boxing in a nonexistent area, and it’s taking over the sports world right now,” he said. “It’s one of the highest viewed sports channels in the world right now.”
Eppens looks at his lifestyle growing up as one of the main reasons for his success. Having a father with a military mindset helped, too. He always had his father’s discipline to keep him motivated. “It’s just the way I live my life,” he said. “I’m always setting goals, getting the task completed.”
Dan “Cincy Bad Boy” Spradlin
Dan Spradlin sort of stumbled into cage fighting, having no training going into his first fight. He’s lost both of his first two matches since he began in the sport, but it hasn’t deterred him from getting back to the grind. “I’ve had 6-8 months of solid training now,” he said. “The last guy I lost to is the same guy I’m fighting Saturday. We had a match back in December that went to decision. It was a pretty good fight. I’ve been training solid since then.”
Spradlin considered himself mostly a “bar brawler” before setting foot in the cage. As a bouncer for about a year and a half he wound up tied up in a huge out of control brawl with 18 off-duty police officers. An epic battle followed pitting he and the rest of the bouncers against all the cops in an absolute free-for-all. That gave him a taste of no-holds-barred combat, and he was hooked.
“More or less all my life growing up, I was a big fighter, and I was picked on a lot, so I started wrestling in grade school,” he explained. “I went on from there, and I was a little hellion. I found out that I really like fighting, but I never really had a way to actually pursue fighting legally until I found out about MMA. I’m head over heels in love with it now.”
He’s been working out and getting some lessons in the different facets of MMA at Sacan Martial Arts and Georgia Joe’s. “Muay Thai is my main thing,” he said. “I like stand-up fighting. Other than that, I like to go for the rear naked choke. That’s one of the submissions I always try to get people in.”
Given his performance last time out and finding out his opponent had such a solid wrestling background, he’s been addressing his ground attack. “I started working on my ground game. I just wasn’t up to par last fight,” he said. “The guy was an 8-year Division One wrestler, and I just wasn’t ready for the ground game back in December. I’m definitely ready for it now.”
He’s also got his sights set on a pro debut, hoping to get there by about Semptember. “I’m gonna start fighting as much as I can, try to go maybe twice a month, get some wins under my belt, and turn pro about ¾ of the way through the year,” he said. “I already been offered to go pro, but I want to get some more fights first. Eventually I’d like to make it to the UFC. I got a baby on way now, so things are slowing down a little. It’s something I would love to make a career out of, support myself and my family at. It would be great to make a career out of it, get big, well known, and recognized.”
He calls Tito Ortiz his favorite fighter. “He just goes in there and gets it done,” he said. “He’s just kind of like a bad kid off the street. He had it rough, but he made something positive out of it, more or less.”
One thing he’s like to see change in the future is the way it’s portrayed by those who can’t seem to understand it. “The way it’s looked down upon as barbaric, it’s just not right. I look at it as two gladiators going in there and goin’ at it, putting each other to the test,” he said. “All you have to fall back on is yourself in the ring or in the cage. My girlfriend even thinks the sport is barbaric. My dad despised it in the beginning, and for my first fight he didn’t wanna go, and he didn’t wanna hear nothin’ about it. Now, he watches UFC every chance he gets, and he’s at every fight. He loves it.”
He counts his father as one of his most important role models growing up. “He was always taking on things that were hard to overcome, as far as military and police life,” said Spradlin. “He always seemed to achieve whatever he did. I started fighting, and I can see now that I’m now somebody for him to look at and be proud of as well.”
In addition to being a fighter bent on dominating opponents in the cage, Spradlin is also a budding businessman looking to crush the competition. He already has his own clothing line: Bad Boyz Fight Wear. “We’re trying to get that out there, and we sponsor Chris “The Grinch” Reedy, and we’re working on getting a few other fighters to sponsor this year,” he said. “We also have Playboy Model Jessica Renee doing an endorsement for us. And we’re doing some fighting promotions, working with Eric “The Outlaw” Hayes, and we have a radio station endorsement as well. It’s with Morning Show Central, a podcast out of Cleveland. We just started back the team back in October. We’ve got two fighters on the team now, and both of us are amateur. I also get a lot of support from a local Chiropractor, Doctor Brandon Zoller.”
Although the event itself features mainly local fighters, fighters from Michigan, Indianna, and Pennsylvania also make the trip to participate. There’s also usually a couple of pro fighters there, according to Spradlin. “Rich Franklin’s usuallly there, Sylvia’s been there before, Diesel Riggs, and a few other professional fighters from the UFC,” he said. “We probably get around 2,000 people per event, at least. It’s at a night club with three different theme rooms, and they have the Rodeo room cleared out, and they use that room for the show.”
Bad Boyz will also have a booth set up at the event for their fight wear. They have added a few new items to their inventory, including beanies and hot shorts for the ladies. MJ from Morning Show Central’s Uncensored Net Noise will also be joining them at their booth. They will even have giveaways from Cryogel, Cocaine Energy Drink and NRage Energy strips.
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